SAN ANTONIO — The Dallas Cowboys are going home after two weeks in the Alamodome. They know they are still far from finished in training camp.
“It’s a transition,” defensive end Marcus Spears said. “I don’t think any of us in our right mind think that this is the end of camp. We don’t break camp until late August. . . . We didn’t have a lot of time to get together during the offseason, so there’s still a lot of work left to be done.”
Coach Jason Garrett put his team through a walkthrough Wednesday morning before breaking the first part of camp and returning to North Texas. Dallas plays the Broncos in its preseason opener tonight at Cowboys Stadium.
The Cowboys had 13 days of practice in San Antonio.
“It’s been good. I think we’ve accomplished a lot,” tight end Jason Witten said. “I think we’ve taken a mind-set when it could’ve been a lot of distractions over the last two weeks because the season happened quick. Guys came here ready to work.”
Especially on defense, with new coordinator Rob Ryan installing his scheme without the benefit of any offseason workouts or meetings because of the 4 1/2-month NFL lockout that didn’t get settled until it was time to go to camp.
Ryan took over a defense that gave up a franchise- worst 436 points last season after allowing an NFC-low 250 points the previous year with pretty much the same players.
“That’s still a work in progress,” Ryan said. “We’re evaluating players and going to make sure you keep the right players to go forward. To be honest with you, I remember every single game that I ever coached in the NFL, the real ones. Not the preseason, I don’t remember one of them.”
The preseason game will be quarterback Tony Romo’s first action against a team other than his own since Oct. 25, when he suffered a broken collarbone against the Giants.
Romo organized and ran offseason workouts with players during the lockout in the aftermath of the team’s disappointing 6-10 season. He has looked sharp throughout camp.
“He’s done a lot. . . . I think experiencing what we all did, there’s a mind-set of, ‘Hey, this window is now and I’ve got to take advantage of this opportunity,’ ” Witten said. “He did it in the lockout and he continued to do it in the start of preseason of not only what the expectations are going to be, but really the clear communication of here’s how we’re going to go about it day in and day out.”
